Evolution Awards: recognition of a technological innovation connected to success

And the Hacienda Nadales was once again the perfect setting to celebrate these awards each summer with the sponsorship of the brand ‘Málaga, la ciudad redonda’ and the Malaga City Council, and the collaboration of Medac and Grupo Cotri. The event began with welcome words from the director of SUR, Manolo Castillo, who reflected on talent and attitude with the recent experience of Carlos Alcaraz’s triumph at Wimbledon. «No one doubts the talent that he has but precisely what made him win was not that, it was the attitude. There is something similar in all the awarded companies and teams: a lot of talent but, above all, a lot of attitude. And that’s what success is based on,” Castillo said.

The gala continued with the intervention of the director of the Malaga and Melilla area of ​​BBVA, José María Hernández, who highlighted the importance of betting on technology and innovation to undertake. And then it was the turn of the businessman and investor from Málaga, Paco Ávila, and the presentation ‘Entrepreneurship in contexts of uncertainty’, in which he gave ten rules for success as an example.

Soon came the time for the winners, announced by the SUR journalist in charge of conducting this gala, Nuria Triguero. The first, in the category ‘Best application of technology in biomedical research’, Genengine. Founded in 2018 by the siblings Ana and Daniel Medina with a clear objective: to improve and optimize healthcare processes in the genetic-clinical field. A few months ago, its CEO, Ana Medina, was in the grand final of the Entrepreneurship World Cup (recognized as the largest startup competition in the world) and, yesterday, the woman from Malaga went up on stage at the Hacienda Nadales to collect her Evolution Award from the businessman Paco Ávila. “As a company from Malaga, it is an honor to receive this award after a long time of hard work in such a special year for us,” Medina highlighted in her gratitude.

The next one was for one of the youngest of this edition: Checktobuild, which won the prize for ‘Best application of technology to improve efficiency in the construction sector’. This ‘startup’ was founded by Alejandro Ruiz from Marbella with the aim of eliminating budget overruns and construction delays using artificial intelligence to automate quality control and project execution progress. The origin was in Malaga, where since 2020 it has its headquarters, to which another office in Miami was added in 2022 as a result of its expansion to the United States. The recognition, delivered by the commercial director of SUR, Yolanda Quesada, was collected by Alejandro Ruiz himself, who put Checktobuild’s values ​​on the table. «Vision, adaptation and perseverance. You have to fail, improve, achieve it and repeat, “said the CEO.

From the construction sector to the fight for the environment. This led to the next Evolution Award in the section ‘Best application of digital technology in saving water consumption’ for the Waisense brand, which was born from Métrica6. This company began working in 2013 on what is now a phenomenon with an environmental impact: a switch that, with home automation, activates hot water without having to open the tap while waiting for a red light to indicate that it is ready. . And these awards wanted to recognize his work with an award given by the director of the BBVA Malaga and Melilla area, José María Hernández, and collected by the CEO of the company, Eduardo Dueñas. “There is a need that we have to be more sustainable, we are proud to found this concept from Malaga for the whole world,” said Dueñas.

The next to collect the award, in the category ‘Best application of digital innovation in energy efficiency and sustainability’, were the most veteran of the night, Airzone, which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary with a turnover close to 100 million of euros. From Málaga TechPark they are working on a new factory to double their production capacity with an investment of 8 million euros. In these awards, its founder and director, Antonio Mediato, took the award from Manolo Castillo. «I collect this on behalf of the 450 people who work in the company. We are a mature company with the illusion of a ‘startup’”, assured Mediato.

innovative collaboration

The last to take the stage at the Evolution Awards was the youngest of the ‘startups’ in this edition, awarded in the section ‘Best use of new technologies in the field of healthcare’: Bioherent. The initiative was born in 2021 by Íñigo Molina, Ezequiel Pérez-Inestrosa, Jonas Leuermann and María José Torres. This engineering, chemistry and medicine team is working to carry out the proof of concept of its ‘in vitro’ diagnostic prototype for allergies to beta-lactam antibiotics based on a photonic biosensor that works with small peripheral blood samples and provides results in five minutes. The whole team went up to collect the award presented by the mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, but it was Leuermann who dedicated a few words of thanks: «We are a group of very different people but who have achieved many things, it is worth trying a such an innovative collaboration.”

To close the event, the words of the mayor of Malaga further promoted the work of the winners and encouraged the entrepreneurs. «It is important to us that there are solid, strong companies in the city, with important billings and growing step by step. Much remains to be done with more editions like this and I am convinced that we will be able to keep the talent”, concluded De la Torre.